MINUTES 3 OCTOBER 2023

1) Agree last meetings minutes:
The approval of last minutes have been done by email and published them into the members website.
2) Update New Course
Finally, the bidding process started last week, and we are in this process. Time to put the bid is until end of this month (this has been extended until 18th November).
Last week our consultants Turfgrass were here looking at the New Course to make a nice
project if we are successful with our bid. There have been some meetings with banks and
some other key people and now it is time to put everything together to present it to the Town Hall.
The new criteria from the Town Hall looks fair and friendly so it is exciting if we get it. The plan is to invest circa 5 million euros, meaning we are keen to invest on this course significantly.
New Course will be purely green fees and will remain as pay and play course. The club would offer those existing members with no rounds in this course, the possibility to upgrade their memberships.
Once the bid time is finished (end of this month), we would expect to hear from them within 2 or 3 weeks. In case there are some other offers with little money, we would up it; however, if someone offers a considerable amount of money more than us, the club will not bid again.
DT asks if the improvement works that greenkeepers are doing on the New Course due to the upcoming European Junior Open is considered good news by the Town Hall. SD answers yes, trying to demonstrate we are in a good position to get it back.
DQ asks what the commitment to the New Course membership was. SD explains that the new course packages are until 31st of December this year. These will continue next year. If everything goes according to plan, new course will close probably in October 2024. SD clarifies they are not memberships, they are not considered members; these are simply rights to play (no tournaments, no discounts…)
DQ asks if the bad conditions of the New Course have had a bad impact on the name of San
Roque… SD explains that thanks to the actions carried out in this period of poor conditions of the new course (we have contacted TTOO in advance, upgrades to the Old Course, low prices etc…), there have not been so many complaints. Of course, there have been a few complaints,
but at the end of the day the club is not going to spend a lot of money in something it is not
ours now.

DT asks what the deal on the water situation is. SD confirms the club is fine.
GW asks if the criteria for new course bids includes things like infrastructure (i.e., clubhouse…).
SD informs that Town Hall requires a clubhouse with accommodation, a driving range, maintenance facilities, machinery, staff among others.
3) Update on Suites
25 rooms have been apparently opened since beginning of September. The hotel guests have been friends / family of the owners, so they are doing like a soft opening. We will work together as soon as they are fully opening their facilities.
4) Is there a plan to sound (echo) proof bar and restaurant?
Yes, we will do it. Company has been approached by us, but they are so busy that they will only be able to come in November to give us a quote. If this is fine, then we would do it sometime during the winter (best time to do it) in stages starting with the bar area.
5) Club Championship play-off to be formally agreed.
This was agreed informally by email. AS would like to confirm them officially in the meeting to be included in the minutes. Everyone says yes.
DQ reports it was disappointing to see some groups in front of the Club Championship. DT says
this also happened in the ladies’ club championship in May. DQ strongly thinks that in the club championship days, regardless of whether they are members or not, there should not be any players in front of this competition. SD says that just for the Club  Championship, the club
agrees and there will not be any players in front of the competition (men and ladies alike).
About the reversing of the 9 holes rota, AS thinks this should not be optional and that each captain decides to reverse them or not.
For ties in Scratch competition is one hole – sudden death. Applicable for men and ladies alike.
SD adds that this hole needs to be chosen near the time.
AS also would like to formalise and confirm about the Ranking competition rules. It is agreed
that all players will receive a point for participation in the Monthly event. About the second addition, it is not necessary as this is explained two points before (please see Draft Rules by GW).
6) Should a player be able to win a Board Competition without playing a Federated
round at SRGC/Spain?
GW explains there is one player who potentially could win the Matchplay and has never played a full round in San Roque. GW feels this is not correct. This member is presenting some Away
Scores, but we don’t know if they are competition cards. SD understands the feeling but if we go with the World Handicapping System, and providing he has enough cards, technically he does nothing wrong.
AS would suggest that a certain number of qualifying rounds can be required to be played on
SRC per year. However, rules currently say they don’t need to be played in San Roque neither to be Spanish federated rounds. AS says the club could change this particular point if
necessary.

SD understands the point, but he insists that if this person is not doing anything wrong… in any case, SD suggests finding out what other clubs do and what the Spanish Federation say in their rules about it. Any possible change could be considered for next year.
7) Terminal for entering weekday scores.
AS asks if there is any update on this matter. SD shows a video how the terminal looks like. At the moment, we are getting a quote at the same time checking if it compatible with our system. AS asks where is going to be located. After some discussion about where the terminal should be placed, all agree it should be a quiet place such as the table where the members only computer is.
DT asks if this terminal will also allow members to register for tournaments and so on. SD
thinks it is not practical when people must come to the terminal or to decide if they want to play when they are at the club… AR thinks there will be many ways of registration which can lead to confusion.
DQ thinks the fact some people ask for registration after deadline is something which really delays rota teamwork… SD thinks that if the deadline rule is strictly implemented, people will comply correctly next time, and it will save time.
AS brings a request from regular players to mix everybody up. Looking at the starting list today,
we can see low handicappers play together and high handicappers play together. LF explains there are some groups (specifically the men) that they only want to play with each other. GW explains that computer can do random lists. AS suggests doing one of the midweek competitions by random starts and the other by requests. About those groups who have some other reasons to play together (they come in the same car, or they share a buggy), at least they can be split into two 2balls. SD thinks this idea is perfect. All agree to start next week for a trial
month with Tuesdays to play with whoever you want and Thursdays by random order. An email will be sent to the members.
8) Ladies going first on Medals and Rankings?
AS informs this comes from LF and NT. AS says that if we go back to two commission meetings ago, it was agreed men first and ladies first starts would swap monthly. LF and NT understands this, however LF says there are fewer ladies, they are normally two or three groups at the most and when ladies are behind men, they have to wait long as men play slower than ladies. NT says that ladies start around 10.30am/11.00am and then finish by 4.30pm… AS thinks that it is irrelevant if it is a lady or a man finishing first. Both LF and NT agree with AS on this. LF suggests there should be two or three gaps between men and ladies to avoid congestion.
DT thinks men should not suffer any disadvantage and the rule of half time is men and half time is ladies is fair and equal for both sides so he strongly thinks we should stick to this rule.
LF and NT understands and agree with men ́s views on this matter.
It is agreed to have 2/3 gaps between men and ladies if there is availability. In case there is no availability, AS thinks that whoever plays first (men or ladies alike) should never have 4balls at
the end (i.e. two 2balls and then three balls all the way). Whoever plays second, can perfectly have 3balls at the front and end with 4balls. (After having read these minutes, SD would like to
clarify that in principle we agree with this idea; however, if a member who is not playing in the competition, requests these tee times, we are obliged to offer to them) With regards to this matter, AS thinks we should go back to the Pace of Play in the rules. There
is an issue with people playing too slow and with those playing too fast. Nothing changes, but AS insists that in medal and ranking competitions we should make sure everybody ́s pace of
play is correct. There are no penalties, but people can be alerted if happens.
9) VC’s have requested the selection process can start now rather that January.
AS informs this has been brought up by Duncan and Nicky. DT explains that it is a suggestion based on Paul Holliday ́s experience. This would mean to have the future Vicecaptains earlier more involved. DT thinks it is better for the club and it means more help with so much work to
do. DQ agrees that it is more hands making heavy work lighter.
AS explains from the PCC… they have started the process three months before. Any time
earlier than sometimes means people don’t know what they are doing. AS thinks 6 months
before is a little bit too early which also means to extend the captaincy time from 2 years to 2 years and a half. NT wonders if they really need it… DT says he is talking about the men where they have bigger job to do. NT see some logic looking the way the diary looks now with so many events.
SD asks if the new vice-captain is announced in January, what would they do? DQ could be
included in the rota for instance… LF and NT asks why men, having many more ACL matches to organize, don’t have a dedicated person (as the ladies’ team captain) for this job… AS says that depends on each captain if he wishes to delegate this duty or not. DT explains he is taking care
of the League while Duncan is doing the friendly matches. So, from that point of view, AS asks again why they need another set of hands. DT explains that DQ will be doing the league, the friendly and the quadrangular matches in Jan, Feb and March. So based on these comments, AS asks if they think there are too many interclubs on the calendar which DT and DQ say yes.
So AS suggests this should be reviewed and reduce the number of events. AR informs there will be a meeting the following day with incoming captains to check the calendar. It is given the idea of having an events manager instead of an early vicecaptain as there are some members who want to help but don’t want to be captains.
SD would agree with Andy in the term that his concern is that we already don’t get so many people applying for captaincy. It makes sense in terms of having an extra pair of hands earlier, however, to add 4/5 months to the position means a massive commitment.
AS informs that PCC is having a meeting next week on the basis to do a new itinerary since the vicecaptain ́ s role has massively increased in the last two years. All the duties of this position must be put on a letter that the PCC will send to the membership when finding the new vicecaptain.
It is agreed to continue with what has been done until now, which is to start the process of
electing the vice-captain in January for the previous reasons of not extending the two-year captaincy period even further.
AS confirms the letter will be sent beginning of January. Members will have 3 weeks to put their names forward and on 1st week of February all should be done, when we will have another commission meeting to ratify the process. In any case, AS will meet Ray Joy next week and see what they can do and will inform the commission.
AS asks if the calendar for next year can be sent out to the members, mainly for those who wish to book flights asap. AR explains she was waiting for the meeting with next captains to confirm the calendar to send it out to the whole membership. In the meantime, membership
office will send the dates of the main events.

10) AOB
Just for information, GW reports that in the last 2/3weeks, there have been some problems with the Federation process with Away scores. These have not been registered for at least the
last 4 weeks. For the ranking, GW recalculated all the handicaps of those members with away scores. GW explains how he did it. Everyone thanks him for his hard work.
11) Next meeting
AS thinks that with Vicecaptain situation, he suggests it should be agreed by the same time, that is, beginning of February. Due to Stephen ́s agenda, 6th February may be not possible for him. The other date could be 30th January. SD will let the commission know soon (SD confirms that the next meeting can be on 6th February 2024)